Strong Till You Break
by ihearttvsnark
Summary: "I never meant to hurt you. You have to believe me. I wasn't thinking about you at all." Spoilers for 3x22 The Departed


**Title: **Strong till You Break

**Author:** ihearttvsnark

**Chapters: **1/1

**Fandom: **The Vampire Diaries

**Pairing: **Rebekah Mikaelson and Damon Salvatore

**Rating: **PG-13

**Word Count: **1,672

**Prompt: ** "I never meant to hurt you. You have to believe me. I wasn't thinking about you at all." Written for lynzie914 at The Vampire Diaries Free-For-All Comment Ficathon Part 4

**Warnings: **Spoilers through _**3x22 The Departed**_

* * *

**Strong till You Break**

She thought it would make her feel better knowing that bitch was finally dead.

Rebekah had stood on the bridge and watched the truck plummet into the water. She'd hidden in the shadows when she'd seen Stefan's car racing around the corner and watched him dive into the water after his precious Elena. She'd felt a little bit bad about Matt being collateral damage, but not bad enough to dive in and fish him out herself. Somehow, she hadn't been surprised when Stefan resurfaced with Matt before Elena. It was just like her to act like she was noble and wanted to save other people first. She was loathsome, really.

Stefan had pulled Elena out next and Rebekah had watched as he'd frantically tried to revive her to no avail. Finally, he'd put her and Matt in his car and rushed off, but Rebekah had seen the stricken look on his face and she'd listened carefully and only heard two hearts beating besides her own. Elena Gilbert was dead and that meant Alaric was dead and he couldn't hurt her or Elijah or Kol. She'd thought that knowledge would make her feel better, but it hadn't.

Nik was still gone and he was never coming back. A small sob bubbled in her throat and Rebekah couldn't seem to make herself stop reliving that moment when Alaric had plunged the stake into his chest. She saw it over and over again in her mind and if she tried to push it aside, her last conversation with her brother took its place. She'd told him that he was going to get himself killed and she didn't care. Rebekah had been angry, spiteful even, but she hadn't meant it. She didn't know how to live in a world without him.

She had nowhere to go. Elijah was long gone with Kol and she couldn't go back to the house that Nik had bought for all of them. She didn't have any friends or anyone, really, that she could turn to. Hours after she'd caused Matt's truck to go into the water, Rebekah found herself back at Wickery Bridge. She stood near the railing, the night sky starting to brighten with the first hints of daylight and she didn't know what she was supposed to do. She couldn't stay in Mystic Falls, but she didn't want to run anymore either.

Footsteps behind her brought Rebekah out of her thoughts and she whirled around to face Damon. He didn't look as sad as she would have expected and she wondered if it was possible he didn't know Elena was dead yet. But he'd been with Alaric and the fact that he was alive at all meant that he had to know. She realized he was clutching something in his hand and it took her a second to realize what it was. "Are you here to kill me, Damon?" she asked.

Damon raised an eyebrow at her cool demeanor. If it wasn't for the tear stains on her cheeks, he would have believed she didn't have a care in the world. But he knew better than that. "Maybe," he replied as he held up the white oak stake he'd taken after he'd watched Alaric die again. "As much as I'd like to plunge this into your heart, I can't because then I might die too since Klaus was obviously lying about our bloodline."

Rebekah swallowed hard and fought the fresh tears that wanted to fall. "Elena had to die," she said. Rebekah needed to focus on that. Anger was better than sadness. "If she hadn't, I'm sure Alaric would have killed you by now," she pointed out. Damon was clutching the stake in his hand, but Rebekah knew she could overpower him if she had to.

He let out a bitter laugh. "Oh Blondie, you're so behind on the times. Elena isn't dead. She did die, but she had vampire blood in her system so she came back." Damon laughed again when he saw the shock cross her face. "Sorry to disappoint," he said.

"That doppelganger bitch gets to keep living and my brother is dead?" Rebekah snapped. She shook her head, anger coursing through her as the tears started to fall again. "Nik should have listened to me! He should have left town when I asked him to." Rebekah brushed the tears away and took a deep breath, focusing her energy on pulling herself together. "You must be happy then. You got exactly what you wanted."

Damon rolled his eyes. "I didn't get _anything_ I wanted. Elena deserved to have a normal life and you took that away from her. Did it make you feel better, Beks? Were you okay with Klaus being dead when you thought Elena was?" he asked.

"No," Rebekah admitted. "Everything went so wrong, Damon. I hate this town and everyone in it!" she cried stubbornly. It wasn't fair that Elena had survived and Nik was gone. Why the hell should she get to keep living her life with her friends? Her life was going to be even better now that she wasn't human. It had all been for nothing.

"I hope you're not waiting for me to comfort you, because I can assure you that will never happen," Damon said. He moved closer to the railing and leaned against it, his eyes flickering to the water. "You're not actually planning on staying in Mystic Falls are you? I'd prefer the town be Original free."

"I'd prefer you go to hell," Rebekah replied. She turned so she was facing him and pointed to the stake in his hand. "Let's just get this over with. You can attempt to stab me and I can take it from you and then we can both get on with our lives. I'm sure Elena is waiting for you to rush to her side and tend to all her vampire needs," she scoffed.

Damon rolled his eyes again as he held out the stake to her. "She's with Stefan." His jaw clenched, but Damon pushed the pain aside. "Elena promised Elijah that he could have that. You might as well take it," he said when she didn't reach for it. "No one is going to be stabbing any Originals since we don't know which of your deaths will lead to ours or Elena's," he added. Alaric had broken all of the good doctor's blood vials so Meredith had no idea where the blood that had been used to turn Elena had come from.

Rebekah took the stake and she couldn't stop her mind from flashing back to Nik's death once again. A shudder went down her spine, but she refused to let anymore tears fall. "Is that the only reason you didn't let him kill me?" she asked, "Because you didn't know about the bloodline?" Rebekah already knew the answer to the question; it wasn't like Damon had ever really cared about her. He'd always just been using her for his own gain and that was no exception.

"Maybe," Damon said, shrugging. He turned away from the water to meet her gaze. He hadn't been thinking about the bloodlines when Ric had turned to them and said Rebekah was next. He'd been thinking that he needed her to run. "Or maybe I was just having a weak moment. It won't happen again," he added. Damon was done with weak moments and emotions. They were a waste of time. "You should get out of here. Other people might not be as friendly as me when they see you."

She shrugged. "That won't be any different than normal. No one has ever been nice to me without a reason. Including you," Rebekah added pointedly. Damon obviously wasn't happy about Elena being a vampire, but he'd handed over the stake almost too easily. She couldn't help being suspicious of him even if it didn't really matter any longer. "There's nothing left anyone can take from me. You can't hurt me anymore," she added.

Damon just looked at her, not saying anything for a long moment. "You don't get it, do you?" he asked. "I never meant to hurt you. You have to believe me. I wasn't thinking about you at all." Damon wasn't sure he could be any more honest than that. Rebekah had been a pawn in a larger game and that was it.

The words stung more than they should have. Rebekah knew he was telling the truth. He'd never set out to hurt her or target her; he'd used her and he'd messed with her emotions, but she knew that she'd just been in the right place at the right time. "I do believe you. Thank you for this," she added, holding up the stake. "I need to go." She still didn't know where she was going to go, but Rebekah had to get away from Mystic Falls and the memories it held. First she'd lost Finn there and now Nik. Her chest tightened and she fought the urge to cry again. If she started, she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop.

He nodded as he shifted to stare out at the water again. "Take care, Blondie," Damon said. "Please don't feel the need to write or call or text or anything like that. Maybe we'll see each other in the next century. We'll do lunch then," he muttered, wondering if another hundred years would be long enough to forget the horrors that had happened since the Originals had come to town.

Rebekah started to walk away and then stopped, turning to look back at Damon over her shoulder. "Try not to let anyone drive a stake through your heart in the meantime." She saw a small smile on his face before he turned and met her gaze. Rebekah figured since this was goodbye, she might as well be completely honest. "For what it's worth, I would have picked you over Stefan. Elena is a fool," she added before she sped off, leaving Damon staring after her.


End file.
